we talk about it, like, you know, teenagers are sitting around doing nothing, then the cell phone, smartphone came along and they started sexting. yeah, i mean, i think that s true. teenagers have been dating and going steady for years. it s just a little easier for them to communicate with each other via instagram or snap chat or tindr or what have you. it just makes it more of a public demonstration of some of these things that might have been going on before in private. i guess i still fail to see the legal logic of why it should be illegal. yeah, and i think a lot of states actually don t necessarily think that the remedy is to criminalize this behavior. i mean, child pornography laws are intended to protect children. so when you use them to prosecute children, it seems like a bit of a misapplication of the law. so there have been a handful of states who ve gone in a slightly different direction by creating statutes that move sexting into a different category and allow for te
police department, they re not putting out too much information. they did say this started with a 15-year-old girl and with a 17-year-old. they re not obviously putting any names out there. but they say it happened that the boy, trey simms, was sending these text messages and they say that he told him repeatedly to stop sending them, but that s, of course, their portrayal of it. stacy bigley, david culver, thanks very much. thank you. this story seems extreme. it is. it s actually part of a way bigger trend. the prosecution of sexting by minors and use of, in some cases, child pornography laws to prosecute teens engaging in consensual behavior. it s happening all around us. we ll talk about it, ahead. avo: waves don t care what age you are.
opened the door and said her name and i had to cut her down. she was hung she was hanging. can you imagine? and so leah parsons says her daughter hasn t even been buried and she s speaking out about this. why? charges haven t been laid, suzanne. they said we did not have enough evidence to bring anyone to trial, not even for the fact that an image of this alleged incident was texted and e-mailed to people, even though that in itself is an offense under the child pornography laws here in canada, today we do have a bit of an aboutface from the provincial government. they say they will now look into the case again and see if any charges will be forthcoming. suzanne. thank you. i understand too she had moved away from her school and because of social media, because of those visuals and those messages that she was still traumatized by all of that.
drip. may hear more about the houston police department. when the story first started to happen, it s a bigger deal. talk about sext g now. there s a move under way in states like texas. why are the states introducing penalties for in? this is such an epidemic. i say i ve been calling it a 21st century of you show me yours, i ll show you mine. it s a federal crime to do it and tied to child pornography laws. do we want to put kids in jail with felonies and have them register as sex offenders for this behavior that goes on? to reduce the penalties to misdemeanors makes a lot of sense because they ll be held accountable and won t ruin their lives. you know, sonny hosten has great insights into the cases and joins me every saturday at 5:00 eastern right here on cnn.
referred to the justice department, they will start an investigation and that is when police monitorships are put in place, like in l.a., like in detroit. i don t know. i ve called around. i don t think that the justice department is looking at the houston police department yet but it could happen, it could happen. especially, as you said, with this community activist going drip by drip by drip. we may be hearing more about the houston police department. this is something, when the story first started to happen i was like, okay, it s not a big deal and then it starts to be a bigger and bigger deal. lets talk about sexting now. there s a move under way in some states, like texas, to reduce the criminal penalties for teens who use their cell phones to share photos why are they doing this? i think because it s such an epidemic. it s the 21st version of you show me yours, i ll show you mine. it s something i m not saying it s right or wrong, but it s something that kids do. and s